‘Bionic ear’ enables Australia's telescope to hear more of universe

Science & Military2018-05-17

An upgrade to Australia's largest telescope may allow Australian astronomers to create a clearer picture of the universe, according to scientists from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).
CSIRO recently installed a "bionic ear" receiver to the Parkes radio telescope in the outback of New South Wales, which would enable it to catch a wider range of radio waves - 700 MHz to 4 GHz - from the universe, making the telescope 10,000 times more sensitive than when it was first built in 1961.
Receiver in the anechoic chamber / Photo via CSIRO
CSIRO astronomer Dr. George Hobbs compared the cosmos to a choir with “stars and galaxies singing with different voices.”
According to Hobbs, CSIRO only had receivers for “just one part of the choir at a time,” while the new one makes it possible to “listen to the whole choir at once.”
The 1.8 million-US dollar piece of equipment, which was partly funded by Germany's Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, not only creates opportunities for new discoveries, but also a level of "multitasking for science."
CSIRO astronomers Dr. George Hobbs (L) and Dr. Jane Kaczmarek (R) with the receiver /Photo via CSIRO
“While some of us are timing a pulsar, other astronomers could be looking for the signs of newborn stars,” Dr. Hobbs said.
Pulsars are neutron stars that emit radio waves, and scientists monitor them in order to study extreme states of matter, search for planets beyond Earth’s solar system and measure cosmic distances.
The Parkes radio telescope, with a diameter of 64 meters, is one of the largest single-dish telescopes in the southern hemisphere. It has found some of the most known pulsars and discovered a new spiral arm in the galaxy.
Parkes has been continually upgraded throughout its lifetime and is one of the world’s most productive radio telescopes. /Photo via CSIRO
(CGTN)

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An upgrade to Australia's largest telescope may allow Australian astronomers to create a clearer picture of the universe, according to scientists from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

CSIRO recently installed a "bionic ear" receiver to the Parkes radio telescope in the outback of New South Wales, which would enable it to catch a wider range of radio waves - 700 MHz to 4 GHz - from the universe, making the telescope 10,000 times more sensitive than when it was first built in 1961.

Receiver in the anechoic chamber / Photo via CSIRO

CSIRO astronomer Dr. George Hobbs compared the cosmos to a choir with “stars and galaxies singing with different voices.”

According to Hobbs, CSIRO only had receivers for “just one part of the choir at a time,” while the new one makes it possible to “listen to the whole choir at once.”

The 1.8 million-US dollar piece of equipment, which was partly funded by Germany's Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, not only creates opportunities for new discoveries, but also a level of "multitasking for science."

“While some of us are timing a pulsar, other astronomers could be looking for the signs of newborn stars,” Dr. Hobbs said.

Pulsars are neutron stars that emit radio waves, and scientists monitor them in order to study extreme states of matter, search for planets beyond Earth’s solar system and measure cosmic distances.

The Parkes radio telescope, with a diameter of 64 meters, is one of the largest single-dish telescopes in the southern hemisphere. It has found some of the most known pulsars and discovered a new spiral arm in the galaxy.

Parkes has been continually upgraded throughout its lifetime and is one of the world’s most productive radio telescopes. /Photo via CSIRO